The most widely used and possibly the most effective treatment for astraphobia is exposure to thunderstorms and eventually building an immunity. Cognitive behavioral therapy is also often used to treat astraphobia. The patient will in many cases be instructed to repeat phrases to himself or herself in order to become calm during a storm. Heavy breathing exercises can reinforce this effort.

In 2007 scientists found astraphobia is the third most prevalent phobia in the US. It can occur in people of any age. It occurs in many children, and should not be immediately identified as a phobia because children naturally go through many fears as they mature. Their fear of thunder and lightning cannot be considered a fully developed phobia unless it persists for more than six months. In this case, the child's phobia should be addressed, for it may become a serious problem in adulthood.

To lessen a child's fear during thunderstorms, the child can be distracted by games and activities. A bolder approach is to treat the storm as an entertainment; a fearless adult is an excellent role model for children.

Like many other phobias, lilapsophobia can often be treated using cognitive-behavioral therapy, but if it stems from post-traumatic stress disorder, then alternative therapy may be more recommended.

The following are two therapies normally used in treating specific phobia:

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a short term, skills-focused therapy that aims to help people diffuse unhelpful emotional responses by helping people consider them differently or change their behavior, is effective in treating specific phobias. Exposure therapy is a particularly effective form of CBT for specific phobias. Medications to aid CBT have not been as encouraging with the exception of adjunctive D-clycoserine.

In general anxiolytic medication is not seen as helpful in specific phobia but benzodiazepines are sometimes used to help resolve acute episodes; as 2007 data were sparse for efficacy of any drug.

Like astraphobia, lilapsophobia is a common fear for children, although less common. Because children are just learning to distinguish between fantasy and reality, major storm broadcasts on television or discussion by parents can cause fear that the storm is coming with a tornadic potential or a hurricane.

Because fear is a part of normal child development, this phobia is not diagnosed unless if persisted for more than six months. Parents should conquer the child's fear by telling them how rare the major storms that hit hometown area are.

Specific phobias have a one-year prevalence of 8.7% in the USA with 21.9% of the cases being severe, 30.0% moderate and 48.1% mild. The usual age of onset is childhood to adolescence. Women are twice as likely to suffer from specific phobias as men.

Evolutionary psychology argues that infants or children develop specific phobias to things that could possibly harm them, so their phobias alert them to the danger.

The most common co-occurring disorder for children with a specific phobia is another anxiety disorder. Although comorbidity is frequent for children with specific phobias, it tends to be lower than for other anxiety disorders.

Onset is typically between 7 and 9 years of age. Specific phobias can occur at any age but seem to peak between 10 and 13 years of age.